From Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton, these are the instruments that made the sounds that shaped a generation.

"They definitely are tools to make music, but they are so much more than that," said Jayson Kerr Dobney, curator of the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Play it Loud, Instruments of Rock and Roll," is the first time an art museum has celebrated  the iconic instruments of rock and roll. It opens to the public April 8th, but NY1 got a sneak peek from Co-Curator Jayson Kerr Dobney, who is in charge of the Met's Department of Musical Instruments. And there's a lot to see.

The exhibit includes Ringo Starr's first Ludwig drum kit, which he bought in 1963; drums used by The Who's Keith Moon, and Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat or Frankenstein guitar.

Dobney says curators asked many of the artists themselves to lend instruments to the exhibit.    

"You talk to them, you tell them what we are up to, how we would exhibit them, and then say, would you like to be part of the project," Dobney said.

There are more than 130 instruments, including the guitar Jimmy Page's used to play "Stairway to Heaven" with Led Zepplin; horns, pianos, keyboards and synthesizers; and the famous five-neck guitar used by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. No exhibit of rock instruments would be complete without smashed guitars - this one features axes destroyed on stage by Pete Townsend and Kurt Cobain.

The Metropolitan, of course, has had a collection of musical instruments here for 130 years, but nothing like these.

"We already view them as works as art, you know, creative muses, or great works of craftsmanship or design, and so I think this is a chance to show that with contemporary instruments," Dobney says.

So if you ever wanted to see Bruce Springsteen's Telecaster or Bo Diddley's rectangular classic, they're here. Instruments that tell stories through their makers, designs, materials, sounds and players.  

"The best instruments are the ones that combine all of those things," Dobney says.

The "Play it Loud" exhibit runs until Oct. 15. To find out more head to metmuseum.org.